Saturday, June 1, 2013

MLB Ejection 052: Todd Tichenor (1; Lance Berkman)

HP Umpire Todd Tichenor ejected Rangers DH Lance Berkman for arguing a strike three call in the bottom of the 1st inning of the Royals-Rangers game. With one out and one on, Berkman took a called third strike from
Berkman, Ron Washington dispute the call.
Royals pitcher James Shields for a called third strike. Replays indicate the strike two and three pitches were located off the outer edge of home plate (px -1.091, -1.226 respectively), the call was incorrect. At the time of the ejection, the contest was tied, 0-0. The Royals ultimately won the contest, 4-1, in extra innings.

This is Todd Tichenor (97)'s first ejection of 2013.
Todd Tichenor now has -4 points in the UEFL (0 Previous + 2 MLB + -4 Incorrect Call = -2).
Crew Chief Dale Scott now has 2 points in the UEFL's Crew Division (2 Previous + 0 Incorrect = 2).

This is the 52nd ejection of 2013.
This is the 25th player ejection of 2013. Prior to his ejection, Berkman was 0-1 in the contest.
This is the Rangers' 1st ejection of 2013, T-2nd in the AL West (OAK 5; LAA, SEA, TEX 1; HOU 0).
This is Lance Berkman's first ejection since July 17, 2012 (Brian Gorman; QOC = N).
This is Todd Tichenor's first ejection since September 8, 2012 (Gio Gonzalez; QOC = N).

Wrap: Kansas City Royals vs. Texas Rangers, 6/1/13
Video: Berkman is tossed for arguing balls and strikes following a first inning strikeout (TEX)

42 comments :

Lindsay said...

This pitch is a strike in any league. Berkman at it again. Maybe he should run for mayor.

Lindsay said...

Does anyone notice the balk on the ejection? Flinches to eject him, thinks twice, gets in another warning, g'bye.

Lindsay said...

champ,


i agree. thats a good pitch.


also, washington will hear from mlb for not seperating berkman before engaging tichenor. also, this looked like the dale scott of 2010, taking his good old time

Lindsay said...

timeplay, you are the worst umpire apologist going on this site. an absolute embarrassment.

Lindsay said...

I like the hesitation. And despite what Pitch FX says, I would have a hard time not calling that a strike myself.

Lindsay said...

sorry, that looks like a good pitch, I think catcher influence should be added into the rules, because the catcher makes that pitch look amazing, I mean heck the big league guys get "acceptable" ratings on these pitches when the catcher sets up there and frames them up like that. Great ejection too. I was honestly surprised to see that this pitch was almost a baseball off the plate, the way the catcher caught the pitch made it look amazing....

Lindsay said...

Welp, bad calls are not just prone to baseball. The longest WCWS game in softball history just ended at 3B with a blown call.

Lindsay said...

Hey, clown -- timeplay thought those were strikes. That's what I was saying. This guy has the cojones to post MARTY FOSTER FAN CLUB and continually defend umpire incompetence. Both of those pitches were nowhere near the zone!

Lindsay said...

He's the embarrassment? You don't even know how to properly capitalize your sentences.

Lindsay said...

I don't care how bad the call is, it's pretty dumb to get thrown out for arguing a call in the first inning of a game.

Lindsay said...

It's not the catcher that makes it look like a strike, it's the off-center camera angle.

Lindsay said...

satire, silly. read it. understand it.

Lindsay said...

Since you obviously aren't aware, the shift key is to the left of the Z key, assuming you're using a standard English keyboard.

Lindsay said...

Why are you arguing with the person agreeing with you?

Lindsay said...

if you understood standard english conventions, you would understand why my comments are deliberately lowercase. maybe we need robot comment-makers.

Lindsay said...

Standard English convention is to capitalize the first letter of a sentence, as well as that of proper nouns such as "English".

Lindsay said...

english, as in the language. if you are such the grammatical nut, the quotation marks are inappropriately used within that sentence.

Lindsay said...

Yes, English as in the English language. What did you think I was talking about?

Lindsay said...

Both of you clowns should go pump some gas.

Lindsay said...

Easy, gentlemen. Calm down.

Lindsay said...

Quite the style shift between those two comments.

Lindsay said...

The comment system glitched up and posted those two comments as the same author, hence my response. Deleting comments doesn't actually delete them anymore it seems...

Lindsay said...

that was a great game.... Didn't think the lady reached 3rd though before she was tagged!

Lindsay said...

tmac, watch the replay! she got her foot in there before the tag!

Lindsay said...

Watching it live, I thought at first she got there. However, upon further review, I agree with TMac. Never got there. Bad base running in my opinion.

Lindsay said...

Before all the computer strike zone crap this was called a strike all the time.

Lindsay said...

Well, Arik, I sure hope you're not on the Appeals Board. Because upon review, she DEFINITELY did get there and there was NO tag. Joke. http://oi41.tinypic.com/234jdu.jpg

Lindsay said...

I can understand Berkman's frustration as neither of those pitches were very close to being strikes, but you have to pick and choose your battles. The 1st inning of a game probably isn't the best time to get heated with the umpire about balls/strikes.

Lindsay said...

Can you 2 please grow up? It is hard to read the nonsense coming from the both of you. This is supposed to be a site talking about Umpiring, not grammar. Who gives a crap if the punctuation is correct. It's not like the comment is not decipherable (sp?) just because it is missing a capital letter.

Lindsay said...

I give a crap because people who aren't smart enough to know that sentences start with capital letters shouldn't be going around calling other people embarrassments.

Lindsay said...

Should there have been obstruction called on this? Watching the replay, it looked to me like she blocked the runner before she received the ball...

Lindsay said...

Uhm ... the ejection was in the first inning. Not very hard for Tichenor to call it "a strike all the time" the rest of the game and then play the "called it the whole time" angle, as you're implying.

Rather irrelevant argument as all of those strikes happened *after* the fact.

Lindsay said...

And just to be clear: Berkman wasn't very smart to argue in the first.

Lindsay said...

So either the technical aspects for the zone size shrunk since FX was added or the older umpires were doing it wrong? Further, every umpire has a different zone, both wide and tall. Lastly, if the defined strike zone in the rules defines what FX uses, WHY would you argue the umps shouldn't be attempting to mimic that?

Anyone defending the pitch as a strike when the FX system CLEARLY shows it outside obviously doesn't care about the rules (which define the FX box) and just has bias in their opinion. Anyone defending the ump should also be admitting he has a wide zone (previously demonstrated in a prior pitch that AB) - the pitch should not have been called a strike by definition.

Oh, and not arguing because it's the first? Have you ever played a game of baseball in your life? You think people only care about incompetence in the late innings? You think competitive players want to be put at a disadvantage because an unrelated 3rd party made a mistake directly hurting them or their team EVER in the game? Get a grip on reality - maybe hockey players shouldn't argue with the refs in the 1st period AM I RIGHT?!

Lindsay said...

Its got good movement. not like Mariano Rivera's but still good movement and thats why James Shields is one of the better pitchers in the game. He has great cutter, and a sick change up.

Lindsay said...

It's a borderline pitch as it is, and he did a pretty good job of hitting his catcher's target. If an umpire has isn't sure, but the catcher hardly has to move his mitt to catch the pitch, the ump is probably going to give the pitcher the benefit of any doubt.

Lindsay said...

here's the question you must ask... was she tagged while her foot was off the bag? If you look at this video at 3:12 you will CLEARLY see she was tagged while not in contact with the base. That is an out.

http://www.gatorvision.tv/mediaPortal/player.dbml?id=2561616&DB_OEM_ID=6500

Now I will make your case for you: Did the 3rd basewomen impede the runner thereby causing obstruction? That is a whole different argument.

Lindsay said...

jeff,
see above video.... while she may have contacted the base she was tagged while not in contact!

Lindsay said...

So you are saying you should get a speeding ticket every time you drive 56mph in a 55 zone. You are crazy?

Lindsay said...

First, if you use the term "umpire apologist" - quite simply, you've been pushing the QTIP in your ear waaaaayyyyyyy past the point of resistance. I hate that word - like I hate the words "proactive" and "paradigm". It makes absolutely no sense. (I do recall, politically, the term "sympathizer" being used, but this context does not apply.)



As for this call, it is a close call and no batter should argue, but TT still has some maturing to do as an umpire. I still recall his Twins/Red Sox game when he was first called up, and he just seems to come across as haughty to me. But then again, so does Joe West...

Lindsay said...

Wow, based on that pitch fx I need to work on my zone. I was sure it started over the plate, trailed off it but must have caught a piece as it went by.

Lindsay said...

Two things to consider is the fact that umpires (for better or worse, I think for better) will reward pitchers for not making the catcher's glove move if the target was close (which, if you ignore the ridiculous pitch trackers you can admit this was close).

The other thing to bear in mind when judging umpires and their zones is that many many umpires are taught to give the plate + a ball's width...basically the strike zone's width is the ball touching the black on both sides.

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